Music and Painting Combined Together in Action

To read the article in Russian scroll…

Yesterday I conducted a work-shop “The Influence of Music and Painting on the Inner State and Personal Development” for adults and children in one of the music schools in our city. I told the parents about how music and painting are used in the modern world to relieve stress, what kind of music is considered healing, how one can use music and painting in daily life to relieve tension and bring our inner state into balance. The parents were also told about the influence of color on a person’s state, about how one can learn the real internal state by color and how one can be driven into a state of calmness or, on the contrary, dynamics through color.

The main part of the work-shop was devoted to

Buddha. What is Enlightenment?

 

This picture painted by the Mexican artist Octavio Ocampo is called “Buddha” but what is the symbolism behind the peaceful face? Isn’t it what is meant by the word “Enlightenment”? Look closer and you will see that the symbols of different religions are parts of one person. Isn’t it because all the religions are like flowers on the same tree and enlightenment means realization of the virtues which are the same in all the religions?

The chin of Buddha is made of his disciples bowing in namaskar. The lower lip is like the sahasrara chakra (1000-petal from Sanskrit). Ears are represented by Shri Ganesha and Shri Kalki. There is the tree of life constituting the forehead and the dove representing the Holy Spirit in the area of the fontanel bone. This is to name a few. May be you will also see something else.

Through Art to Purity and Love

If the desire to create goes from your heart and not just mind, the process of creating may purify you and reveal all the best in you. Especially when you are working with natural materials. I am sure you have noticed that hand-made things have something about them because of which it is so pleasant to take them in hands, to have them at home. And it is not only a piece of soul and love of the person who has created them but also the love of the All-pervading power, the vibrations of Paramchaitanya. As when our heart is open, we allow the Creator to use us as his “paintbrush”. It is He who is the real Creator working through us.

And we really felt what I have just described when we crossed the threshold of an ordinary (from outside) building of Saint-Petersburg Children’s Art House. As soon as we had entered it we found ourselves in a real Palace. There was such love and joy, purity and beauty around! It is a world of morality and history, a place to rest from the daily routine of the working days in a big modern city.

Kids are taught so many things here (for free!): making laces, weaving, embroidery, making things of birchen bark, painting, history of the city, ceramics, origami, making soft toys, painting on wood, video shooting, karate and other sports, design, singing, dancing, etc…

And the motto of the Children’s Art House says: If there is no Sun in the sky, find it within yourself!

In fact, we came to the studio of ceramics where our friend, Sasha, teaches.